How John Wick Got His Suit for ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ – WWD

Ever wanted to don a sleek black suit and channel your inner John Wick? Well, now’s your chance.

In anticipation of the fourth installment of the hitman action film, “John Wick: Chapter 4,” that will be released on March 24, Lionsgate, the studio behind the franchise, is partnering with Hard Rock Hotels, Resorts and Casinos on a fashion sweepstakes.

Called “John Wick: Chapter 4 Suitstakes,” fans can enter for a chance to win a consultation and have a custom suit designed by the film’s costume designer Paco Delgado. In addition to the suit — which can be for a man or a woman — the winner will also receive a two-night stay and experience in the Hard Rock’s famed 3,300-square-foot Rock Star Suite in New York City. 

The sweepstakes runs from Thursday through March 31 and fans can enter through a special microsite.

“John Wick: Chapter 4” marks the first film in the franchise where Delgado has served as the costume designer. It also reunites him with the director, Chad Stahelski, with whom he has worked in the past.

But Delgado, who has worked on “Les Misérables,” “The Danish Girl” and “The Skin I Live In,” was eager to make his mark on the wardrobe. Since the first film came out in 2014, Wick, who is played by Keanu Reeves, has also become known for the sophisticated black suits.

But even though the lead character’s wardrobe is centered around one specific look, Delgado didn’t feel limited.

“Obviously, this is a movie that comes with a pre-determined look — it’s a lot of black and a lot of suits,” he said from his home in Madrid. “But I always think you can find a lot of freedom when you have a pattern to follow. I really hate it when you embark on a movie and you have a swath of options — you lose a lot of time finding what you want to do. In this movie, that was not the case but I never felt restrained by anything.”

Even so, he still had to respect the film’s history. “We had to produce a suit,” he said, “and the thing with suits is that changes are very minimal, but fascinating at the same time. I like to work with subtleties so this was an exercise in that.”

The subtle change he made for Reeves in this film centered around the fabric. Because the John Wick character had to display an “inner light,” Delgado said, he set out to represent that in the wardrobe. “The idea that his suit, too, had to have an inner light was important for me, even if it was black,” he said. So he found a fabric called Diamond Dust where actual diamond particles are incorporated into the fabric, providing an iridescent glow to the final product.

“It’s a fabric that has a strange shine inside and you can feel that with the cameras. I thought that was interesting and important.”

Delgado used the Diamond Dust fabric for both Reeves and Marko Zaror, who plays one of Wick’s enemies, in the film. But Zaror’s character sports more of a silver-gray fabric while Reeves’ is “more subdued,” he said.

Beyond that, Delgado had a little more leeway when dressing the other characters.

“A huge chunk of the movie is supposed to be happening in Osaka,” he said. So he researched Japanese fashion and aesthetics, which he found “really fascinating,” and used those learnings to create updated versions of traditional outfits for the other stars of the film.

For Hiroyuki Sanada, he incorporated artwork that looked like a storm on the seas that he discovered on panels in a museum in Tokyo to create a short kimono for the actor’s Shimazu character. And for Rina Sawayama, who plays Akira, he took a more contemporary approach. “I was thinking a lot about Issey Miyake and Comme des Garçons,” he said. “I wanted her to be dressed in something that represented clouds moving so we printed these effects into silk and also used pleats.”

Delgado said he’s looking forward to working with the winner of the Suitstakes to provide an experience worthy of a movie star to a regular person.

“To give a man or woman the opportunity to have a bespoke suit made is amazing,” he said. “This is what we do all the time in movies — we design an outfit for a particular moment with a particular body in mind. I hope this will be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for someone to enjoy what is really not a normal experience.”

So will he use the Diamond Dust fabric? “It’s a very expensive fabric and I’ll have to have a conversation with the winner because that’s the process of bespoke,” he said. “But I hope it’s black so it’s a very John Wick experience.”

Delgado said although his career centers around creating wardrobes, he doesn’t see himself as a designer. In fact, he relayed a story about how his sister asked him to design her wedding dress, and he told her it would be “really difficult for me because I don’t work as a fashion designer. My inspiration comes from outside. If you told me that you are a poor little girl living in the mountains and you just found the love of your life, then I could create something.

“That’s the big difference between the work we do as costume designers and the work that fashion designers do,” he continued. “I don’t propose a look like Dior did when he created the Corolla dress. In my case, I work from the outside influences and what I think you should wear as an actor to become the character.”